Hard water problems and soft water paths: The "supply versus demand" conundrum

Water problems are complex, interdisciplinary, and have profound effects on human and ecosystem health and well-being. And they are classic "hard" problems. Good science is necessary to solve these problems, but it is rarely sufficient. One of these hard problems is that of "perception" and "frame" - traditional water planners and managers frame freshwater as a "supply" problem, i.e., how can we access and deliver sufficient quantities of water of suitable quality, to satisfy perceived demand. In recent years, however, as water scarcity in different regions has increased due to growing populations and expanding economies, "peak water" limits (including peak renewable, non-renewable, and ecological limits) have started to constrain development of traditional "supply" options (Figure 1). That has led to new thinking about the other side of the equation: what is meant by water "demand" and can demand management tools and approaches offer a way to solve water problems. The "soft path for water" addresses this issue of water demand directly, but implementing demand-side solutions faces serious barriers. This talk will expound on the soft path approach and its potential to overcome some of the gridlock and stagnation in current water policy debates, with examples from both developed and developing countries, and different economic sectors.umulative global reservoir storage (major reservoirs) from 1900 to 2010, showing leveling off of traditional supply expansion. Data from the GRanD database.